From Skaven to God of War

Chapter 233, The Church and the Nobility
A team of knights in exquisite armor galloped along the path in the wheat field.

The most striking feature of its body is the eye carved on the bright silver breastplate, an eye made up of rotating stars. A purple gem is inlaid in the center of the eye pattern, as if it really constructed a lively star eye.

They discovered something and pulled the reins. The horses began to slow down and their galloping momentum slowed down because there was a figure squatting on the side of the road not far away.

The leading knight called out to the figure.

"We are the Holy See Knights of the Stargazing Church. What happened ahead?"

An inquiry was sent.

Hearing the shout, the figure raised his head. He was also a knight, wearing an old armor stained with blood. However, perhaps because his weapon was lost, he only held an ordinary pitchfork in his hand. The armor on his body was old and no longer shiny, but the combination was really weird.

Hoarseness.

"You're too late. Those ratmen are coming over here. Everything is ruined."

As he spoke, there was an indelible sense of fatigue in the strange knight's voice.

The knights of the Holy See looked at each other in surprise at this answer, but in the end the leader decided to move forward.

He took a cloth bag from his warhorse and threw it to the lone knight squatting on the side of the road in front of him.

"Keep going to the back, knight. A baron has already organized the defense line. You are still needed there!"

After saying this, without stopping, the team of knights continued to move forward.

After the Vatican knights left, the lonely figure picked up the cloth bag that had fallen on the ground. Inside was a bag full of white bread.

He nonchalantly used his blood-stained gauntlets to grab the white panel in the cloth bag, supported himself with a pitchfork, staggered to his feet, pushed away the visor, revealing a rough, red face.

He doesn't look like a nobleman, nor a knight, but more like a farmer.

The blood-stained white bread was stuffed into his mouth and chewed hard. He did not deceive the team of Vatican knights, but it was too late. Everything was too late. Everything was gone.

The bread became moist and a little bitter and salty, which were the fallen tears. Using a pitchfork to support his body, he walked towards the direction where the knights of the Vatican were coming.

His back was not straight, he was a little hunched and hunchbacked, and in the surge of rat people, he lost everything in an instant. Even though he didn't have much and was left with only himself, in the midst of pain and confusion, he did not ask questions like why he survived or why he had to survive.

But he is far stronger than some self-proclaimed noble knights.

Although the figure is so desolate.

The Vatican Knights arrived at their original destination. They should have arrived long ago, but were delayed by some things on the way. This was not the only village attacked by ratmen.

Even though they had been at peace for so long, facing this situation, the actual rulers of this area, the knights and nobles, gradually reacted.

The situation was not immediately so bad that it was beyond redemption, because at this time of the ratman invasion, the most important thing had already happened.

All the golden ears of wheat have been gathered into the warehouse.

This gave the nobles and knights enough confidence to recruit troops and gather free people. A large number of people were gathered together to deal with the attacks of the ratmen.

However, the price of awakening is obviously not easy. The destroyed villages and manors are the price of sounding the alarm.

The nobles did not take it seriously. They thought it was just some commoners, like weeds in a wheat field, something that would pop up and spread without anyone noticing. However, the demise of those ancient families and noble bloodlines made the nobles more alert.

The rats wouldn't play any noble game of back and forth with them.

However, the knights of the Vatican could not empathize with the nobles' thoughts at this moment, they just felt sad.

Pausing, what came into view was a ruin, with corpses randomly thrown away and wooden walls knocked down. The fire had not been completely extinguished, and black smoke slowly diffused over the black charcoal.

Pain, discomfort, sadness, perhaps all of them. The knights of the Vatican stopped in front of the village, and all kinds of negative emotions began to surge in silence.

A positive god, or a seemingly positive god, his church, no matter how it changes over the years, and becomes twisted and dirty due to various things, but in the beginning, the teachings were basically uplifting.

Or perhaps there were other reasons. The descending god could not gain the support of the nobles at the first time. Or, as the ruling class, the nobles were naturally not going to rely too much on the god who suddenly appeared and was superior to them.

They rely on ordinary people, at least in the beginning they rely on ordinary people, so naturally their doctrines will also tend to be inclined towards ordinary people.

In the teachings of the Astronomical Church compiled with the approval of the God of Sales and Astronomy, the two most important teachings are to support the conduct of buying and selling and commercial activities, and to encourage people to look up at the sky and gaze at the vast stars. However, these are not attractive enough, at least not attractive enough for ordinary people.

Thus, some of the most essential symbols were incorporated into the doctrine, such as justice, mercy, and kindness. These are very simple things and are accepted by most ordinary people.

As a sign to attract believers.

The rise of the Stargazing Church was triggered by a ruling in a dispute, in an absurd incident.

A baron married an ordinary civilian girl. No, he did not just marry an ordinary civilian girl. He married all the women in his territory, from the elderly princesses to the underage girls, on a sudden whim.

This was not a big deal, and even most of the nobles spread it among each other as an interesting topic of conversation after learning about it, but it was extremely absurd.

All the women in his territory were welcomed into the castle, but after the novelty wore off, he began to ignore all of them. However, he did not let them go because of his own face, as this was his own fault after all.

So a tragedy happened. Could the baron support so many wives? Of course he could. After all, the baron came from an ancient family with a long tradition. They were not short of money, but why should they?

Why waste your money on these guys?

In this way, a large number of wives were abandoned in the back mountain of the castle. A horrific scene occurred soon after. When the tree bark and grass roots were all eaten, they could only eat each other.

At this time, the unknown Pope of the Astronomical Church intervened in the matter. He broke into the castle of the ridiculous baron alone to debate with him and forced him to divorce his wives. The poor women were saved, and these guys who had become crazy during this period of torture were able to return to their various families.

This matter was not handled fairly, but no one thought there was anything wrong with it. Ordinary civilians certainly could not be compared with nobles. It was just another grand divorce.

This divorce once again became an interesting topic of conversation among the nobles.

Since the Astronomical Church became famous, its reputation began to spread among both civilians and ordinary people.

In this judgment, the Stargazing Church rose to prominence, but as for the corpses piled up in the back hill of the nobles, no one cared about them.

However, the Stargazing Church has since begun to flaunt its fairness and kindness.

The Vatican knights who emerged from among them naturally inherited these labels.

The village has been completely destroyed, and the ratmen who attacked here have disappeared. This team of Vatican knights did not stay here for long, but decided to start searching along this range, looking for the ratmen who destroyed the village, and will also pass this news to the surrounding villages that are still holding on.

This is no ordinary rat plague.

Running for this disaster, the Vatican knights left.

But they did not notice that soon after they left, pairs of scarlet eyes appeared in the cracks, corners, and shadows of the ruins, staring at the Vatican knights who were going away.

The rats did not leave.

In this vast forest bordering the wheat fields.

A team of mercenaries was advancing carefully in the forest. For the generous reward, this team was no ordinary one.

A heavy armored warrior, a thief, an apothecary and a mage.

There is a profession of mage among the Dark-Eyed people. After all, as long as they successfully open their eyes, they can gain a strong elemental perception ability.

It’s just that their mages haven’t reached that level of power beyond the limit. Even with the support of bloodline and their civilization having gone through a long enough period of time, it’s still the same.

This small plane can hardly support the existence of powerful creatures, and the mages who mingle in the mercenary teams are mostly known for their functionality.

Most of the tricks he mastered were practical little tricks like magic traps, eagle eye, petrification, silence and scent elimination.

But it was indeed useful, allowing them to travel through the forest, and they encountered the messy ratmen and the transport team led by the Big Claw Priest many times, but they were able to avoid them safely.

But the longer they stayed in the forest and peeked at the glimpse of the menacing ratmen, the more horrified they became.

These ratmen are not the wild beasts that roam the dark forests and uninhabited wilderness, but a ratman army with civilization and organization. Although it is unknown why this ratman army appears to be so scattered, they are by no means simple.

There were even quite a few ratmen among them who were able to mobilize elements, and the elemental fluctuations covering their bodies almost attracted the attention of a ratman priest.

(End of this chapter)